Yae Miko

Yae Miko

5★ElectroCatalystOff-field Damage

TL;DR

Yae Miko's Skill drops a lightning turret, and she gets three of them. Put all three down near each other and they level each other up, then walk away and they shoot enemies for 14 seconds while somebody else holds the field. Her Burst blows the turrets up for a big hit and hands the charges straight back so you can place three more. Place, burst, place, swap out.

Rotation

  1. Skill (E) three times, taking a couple of steps between each one.
  2. Burst (Q). It detonates them and refunds the charges.
  3. Skill (E) three more times with the refunded charges.
  4. Swap out and let them work for the next 14 seconds.

Abilities

Skill (E) Drops a turret that zaps one nearby enemy at a time for 14 seconds. Three charges, 4 seconds between each, three turrets out at once. A turret standing near other turrets levels up and hits noticeably harder for it.
Burst (Q) Costs 90 Energy, back in 22 seconds. A lightning strike, plus every nearby turret is destroyed and comes down as its own separate strike. Each one destroyed this way refunds a skill charge.

The one mechanic to understand

Placement is the whole skill.

Turrets standing near each other climb from level 1 to level 3, and each level is a real jump in damage, so you want all three clustered around the enemies. The trap is that placing one too close to an existing turret deletes the old one instead of buffing it. What you're after is a couple of steps between casts: not standing still and not running across the arena. Get it right and the same three casts do considerably more work for no extra effort.

What actually matters

The two or three real decisions. Everything else is noise.

  • Burst after the turrets, never before. The burst detonates whatever is out and gives the charges back. Cast it on an empty patch of ground and you've thrown away most of its damage and the refund with it.
  • Energy Recharge. 90 Energy is one of the priciest bursts in the game. Roughly 130% to 150% if she's your only Electro, and less if she isn't.
  • Elemental Mastery does double duty. One of her passives turns every point of it into extra turret damage, on top of whatever reaction the Electro is setting off.

Gear

A build that works. KeqingMains lists every other option.

Weapon Crit, with Elemental Mastery close behind. The Widsith turns up on the standard banner and is the accessible pick. Mappa Mare is craftable and gives Elemental Mastery instead if you don't have it.
Artifacts 4-piece Golden Troupe. It boosts skill damage, and boosts it further while she's off the field, which is exactly where she spends the fight.
Main stats Attack or Elemental Mastery sands, Electro goblet, Crit circlet.

Works well with

DendroHydroElectro

Her turrets tick away regardless of who's on the field, so what she wants is a teammate whose element reacts with Electro. Dendro is the usual answer, Hydro the other one.

Don't bother

  • Her normal attacks. Three slow spirit hits, and she has no reason to stand there anyway.
  • Spreading turrets across the arena. They only level each other up when they're close.
  • Aiming them. They pick their own target and there's nothing you can do about it.
  • Waiting for the skill to come off cooldown. Three charges means all three go down back to back.

Want the full theorycrafting version? Read Yae Miko on KeqingMains.